We?ve noticed the recent discussion and concern in this forum surrounding the new TSM 5.3 Administration Center. We are listening to you, and we would like to respond to several of the points raised.
First, we would like to explain why we made these changes. The old interface had not been changed in over 8 years and had fallen behind the times. One of the top customer requirements was for an easy to use, intuitive interface. A number of existing customers as well as customers using competitive products were involved throughout the development process. They not only participated in defining what they were looking for but also participated in early design reviews. As a result of that work, the Administration Center was created. Wizards help guide you through common configuration tasks, and properties notebooks allow you to modify settings and perform advanced management tasks. The interface was integrated into the Integrated Solutions Console because one key customer requirement is a ?single pane of glass? view of all of the servers in their environment. Since IBM plans on integrating a large variety of our software products into the Integrated Solutions Console, it made sense for Tivoli Storage Manger to be there, too. The IBM direction is to have a common look and feel across a large product set, and the Integrated Solutions Console is driving that common look and feel across multiple products. We understand that it is hard to give up an interface you know well and switch to a new one. To help you with this transition, we developed several Flash tutorials which are available from within the Administration Center. These tutorials show you how to maneuver within the Administration Center. Click the ?Getting Started? link on the main screen to launch these Flash tutorials. We will continue to monitor your feedback on this forum and we are tracking your suggestions, criticisms (and hopefully occasionally your kudos). There are also some additional points you?ve raised that we would like to address here: 1. The command line interface (dsmadmc) is still available in TSM 5.3. We have no plans to remove dsmadmc from future releases. We recognize that a great many of our customers use automated scripts with dsmadmc. 2. A separate machine is NOT required for the ISC/Administration Center installation. It can run on the same hardware as your TSM Server, provided you meet the minimum system requirements, as described in the version release page referenced below. In addition, there is a performance Technote available by searching for 1193443 at http://www.ibm.com. 3. The Readme.install file contains instructions for installing the ISC/Admin Center in console mode, which facilitates remote installs. 4. Since the Administration Center is accessed via a browser, it is accessible from any operating system, including XP. Relative to installing the Administration Center itself on XP, since XP tends to be a workstation OS rather than a server OS, we aren't currently recommending XP for the actual Administration Center. (Note that we don't support/recommend the TSM server on XP either and our thought process was that ultimately the Administration Center would be supported on all of the same platforms as the TSM server. Since you interface via a browser, you ultimately have access from any OS). 5. We?ve heard your concern and complaint about the footprint of the Administration Center. We don?t have a quick fix for this but are continuing to look at ways to reduce this. 6. We have heard your requests to bring back the old interface. Since that interface was not uplifted with the new TSM 5.3 function and our intent is to only enhance the new interface, we decided not to release it. Instead we are focusing on continued enhancements to the new interface at as rapid a rate as is possible. We have several online resources to assist our customers. We have written some ?Technotes? which outline the steps for a variety of common TSM tasks. These documents can be found by referencing Technotes 1193101 and 1193326 at http://www.ibm.com, or by pointing your web browser to the following URLs: http://www.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?rs=0&q1=1193101&uid=swg21193101&loc=en_US&cs=iso-8859-1&cc=us&lang=en http://www.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?rs=0&q1=1193326&uid=swg21193326&loc=en_US&cs=iso-8859-1&cc=us&lang=en In addition, the version release page has links to all of the above, and more information. The version release page is at at: http://www.ibm.com/software/sysmgmt/products/support/IBMTivoliStorageManagerVersionRelease.html Lastly, using the keyword TSMADMINCENTER in the search field on the support web site will provide you the latest information about the Administration Center. The entire TSM development team would like to thank you for your patience in reading this and hope it will give you some insight into why we made some of these decisions. We think TSM 5.3 is a great product that contains many enhancements in addition to an exciting new interface. We encourage you to learn more about TSM 5.3 by reading the version release page listed above. Sincerely, Kathryn Mitton TSM 5.3 Server Development Release Manager Tivoli Software,
